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"Money To Restore Great Lakes Still Flows -- for Now"

"DETROIT -- At a time when many government programs are fighting for survival, there's one place the money is still flowing for now: the Great Lakes."

"In the past two years, Congress has pumped $775 million into the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a plan to deal with problems scientists say could turn the world's largest freshwater system into an ecological wasteland: industrial pollution, invasive species, an unraveling food web, watersheds fouled by massive algae blooms, disappearing wildlife habitat.

President Barack Obama requested an additional $350 million in his 2012 budget, but nothing is certain with lawmakers deeply divided over spending. The future is even murkier, worrying supporters who say big cash infusions will be needed for many years to heal the ailing freshwater seas and the streams that feed them.

'We know these problems aren't going away on their own, and they're likely to get even more expensive as time goes by,' said Tim Eder, executive director of the Great Lakes Commission, an agency representing the eight states and two Canadian provinces in the region."
John Flesher reports for the Associated Press October 11, 2011.
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